LIC Arts Open's Gallery One at The Factory LIC, Presents Julie Comnick's 'Arrangement for a Silent Orchestra'

LIC Arts Open's Gallery One at The Factory LIC, presents artist Julie Comnick's New York debut exhibition Arrangement for a Silent Orchestra, a painting and video project that explores the gradual dissolution of culture in contemporary society through the symbolic ruin of a personal and cultural icon, the violin. Using the violin as a metaphor, Comnick raises questions about the relationship between advancing technology and diminishing cultural heritage, inviting the audience to consider what makes the instrument precious in their own experience, and the impact of its loss.

The inception of this project involved the nationwide solicitation of a hundred violins, beyond repair, which were piled in a mountaintop clearing and burned at dusk. The resulting series of twelve monumental oil paintings and a digital video depict the pile of violins in various phases of ruin: at sunset, illuminated by the lowering sun; at nightfall, in stages of burning; and at dawn, the charred remains. The Factory's 5000 sq ft gallery will also feature Comnick's orchestra-size sculptural installation of altered music stands.

During the eight-year creation of Arrangement for a Silent Orchestra Comnick relearned to play the violin, cast off since childhood, and the exhibition includes the artist's own live violin performance. At the Factory, Comnick will collaborate with New York composer and multimedia artist Alex Ring Gray for the opening performance.

Please view images and complete exhibition description at: http://juliecomnick.com/work/arrangement-for-a-silent-orchestra/

Julie Comnick's paintings and drawings engage the pictorial languages of representation and narration to pose questions about social circumstances and practices. Comnick's exhibition record includes solo shows nationally at contemporary venues including Artspace Gallery, Richmond, VA; Hardesty Arts Center, Tulsa, OK; Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum, Mesa AZ; Space Gallery, Denver, CO; The Gallery at Flashpoint, Washington, DC; Zg Gallery, Chicago IL; and Creative Arts Workshop, New Haven, CT; group exhibitions internationally; and reviews in prominent publications including the Washington Post, Chicago Sun Times, and Dialogue Magazine. Her work has been supported by grants from the Arizona Commission on the Arts. Comnick lives in Flagstaff, Arizona, where she is a member of the School of Art Faculty at Northern Arizona University. She received an MFA in Painting from Montana State University and a BA from The Evergreen State College.

Alex Ring Gray is a composer, improviser, and multimedia artist whose work is largely conceptually-driven and informed by natural environments. With projects spanning the concert hall, sound installations, and electronic records, his work is concerned with gradation, energy, and space.

In addition to his creative work, Alex works as a music copyist, and as a music assistant for Philip Glass. He is an active music technologist and works with Nief-Norf as a Technical Assistant

The Galleries at The Factory LIC are operated and curated by LIC Arts Open and the spaces are provided courtesy of Atlas Capital Group. Many thanks to Jay Fehskens, Evan McKelvey and Jonathan Mehr for their support.